Robert Desrosiers is helping whip the Lester B. Pearson Grade 7 dance class into shape for a fall show

World renowned choreographer Robert Desrosiers works with a Grade 7 dance class at Lester B. Pearson School for the Arts in London Wednesday. Desrosiers is working on a new piece for a show in September. (CRAIG GLOVER, The London Free Press)

When Robert Desrosiers grew up in Montreal in the 1950s, boys didn’t dance.

But Robert’s mother saw something in her son and put him in dance school.

It’s a good thing she did, for her son went on to become arguably the most influential dancer and choreographer in modern dance in Canada, a career that has helped break down the walls for boys in dance and one that continues to inspire dancers of all ages.

Since Sunday, Desrosiers has been in London meeting and teaching dancers of all ages while he leads a class of 28 13- and 14-year-old students at Pearson School for the Arts in a new piece he’s created for the annual Art Harvest where the then Grade 8 class will perform its final show.

Desrosiers urged parents to consider, not just dance, but any of the arts — music, theatre, fine arts — as a way to help their children reach their full potential.

“Any art form is a language, a way of expressing ourselves and discover more about yourself,” said Desrosiers.

“You discover more about who you are. It opens the door to discovering themselves. Sports will also help develop a child, but in a different way.

“I knew from a very early age that dance was for me. It is my language, my way of giving back to life. All people have to give something, whether you’re a baker, a tailor, it doesn’t matter. We’re all here to serve one way or another.”

The arts may especially help children focus, he said.

“Sometimes, as a child you don’t feel that you fit in, either academically or in sports. The arts can be the way to discover something that speaks to you. That’s huge, because you can find a sense of purpose, of wanting to be part of something.”

Desrosiers is a graduate of the National Ballet School of Canada and has danced with the National Ballet of Canada.

He has performed at most major venues in the world and worked with the world’s best dancers, not to mention collaborations with such Canadian icons as Leonard Cohen, Toller Cranston, Bruce Cockburn, Eric Cadesky, Jesse Cook, Neve Campbell, Claudia Moore and The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.

In 1981, Desrosiers was the first recipient of the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, followed in 1985 by the Jean A. Chalmers Award for his innovative choreography.

Desrosiers rarely works with children and it’s especially rare for him to be working with children who have not yet focused on dance for a career.

So, spending a week at Pearson creating a new and still untitled piece based on Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion has been interesting for the man who gave modern dance such works as Nightclown and Brass Fountain (both 1980), The Fool’s Table (1982) and Ultracity (1986), Blue Snake (for the National Ballet) and the multi-media spectacle, Lumiere in 1986.

“Every project has its own colour, it’s own feel,” said Desrosiers in an interview Wednesday.

“I don’t work that often with children and not very often with children where dance isn’t their full focus of life. Now is our third day together and I can see it happening in them where I hand them new ideas. They’re very playful with me and what I like is that it doesn’t matter what I throw at them they’ll willing to try anything.”

Dance teacher Deb Kapp, who studied ballet, said she was “thrilled” to have Desrosiers teaching the students, recalling having seen Blue Snake in Toronto.

“It’s absolutely thrilling,” said Kapp, a fixture at Pearson for 23 years, who founded the Art Harvest, which draws schools and professional from across the province to perform and raise money to fund a post-secondary scholarship.

“The Art Harvest (Sept. 27 at Western University’s Paul Davenport Theatre) is the ultimate performance for the kids, the culmination of five years of learning through the arts. It’s rare for them to have someone come in who is a master at creating works.”

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